A Two Hour Commercial for Aquafina, XBox, Puma, Ben & Jerrys, Michelob, and more...

Rating: 1/10 (20 August 2005)

"Let's find a way to sell our products and have people PAY to see the advertisements." This must have been what the marketing executives said when they conceived of this film, that is more of a LONG commercial than a movie. Okay, I'm aware of product placement in films. We've all grown up and seen it. Most of the time it's easy to ignore, but this film's cinematographer must be the king of product pushing. Just about every scene begins with a closeup on a featured product and spends several seconds lingering upon it. Couple that with the size of a movie screen and a beer can becomes the size of Godzilla! These advertisers must have said to each other "Sci-Fi films are hot right now. Let's use that as the vehicle and jam as many products in there as we can." I could write the whole list of product that I remember from the film, but I don't want to spoil it for everyone (please, sense my sarcasm here).
As for the plot, it has an interesting premise, but there are so many holes in its execution, I wonder how people can actually think this is a great film? If you're interested in sci-fi, see classics like Blade Runner (director's cut), Logan's Run, White Dwarf, Brazil, Gattaca, or Star Wars 4, 5, or 6. If you like action, rent any of the Die Hard series or The Long Kiss Goodnight. When Blade Runner pushed Coke, it was done in a creative way by showing advertising in the future. It didn't detract from the film. Please save your money and don't waste your time on this garbage. At least you can mute the commercials when you watch TV.
My rating is a 1 because of the decent cast and good acting (I guess the advertisers could afford to throw a lot of money at the excellent cast). I refuse to encourage the making of these kinds of films and shame on the people who enable this. I guess the world is going the way of Demolition Man where every restaurant in the future is a Taco Bell. By the way, Demolition Man is also in the mix as a film to see if you want to laugh. It's sci-fi that makes fun of itself. Other films like this are Sleeper and Galaxy Quest. My point is there are so many better films than The Island. See those instead. If you simply must see something on the big screen right now, see Batman Begins or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You should only see The Island if it's for free or you'll be wanting your $10 back.
A lot the the positive comments I have seen for this film read like a mad lib (fill in actor here, fill in movie here, **insert name** is really hot). If you look at the yahoo comments, there is no history on the reviewer and they don't bother to even do a detailed review. I can just see a PR person with a random name generator like they have for hot mail inserting all of these to recoup some of the losses for this summer flop.